Emblem of the Papacy

Emblem of the Papacy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

All domain names are case insensitive, but the newest top level domain is definitely .Catholic – with a large C!

The Pontifical Council for Social Communications has announced that it has received final approval from ICANN on its application to run .catholic.

Of course DNS won’t care if you capitalise it, but sites with .catholic domain extensions will most definitely be Roman Catholic, with “canonical recognition … so people online — Catholics and non-Catholics — will know a site is authentically Catholic”, said Monsignor Paul Tighe, secretary of the Council.

Dioceses and parishes will be able to apply for .catholic domains, along with religious orders and institutions such as schools.

It will be interesting to see if some kind of imprimatur approval process is involved, and whether the right to use such a domain can be withdrawn in the event that “canonical recognition” is lost.

 

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About the Author: Conn Ó Muíneacháin
Conn Ó Muíneacháin works at Blacknight, Ireland's largest provider of domains and hosting. He's an award-winning radio producer, podcaster and blogger. He's an engineer as well (not the award-winning kind). Conn produces video for Blacknight and edits Technology.ie. Labhair Gaeilge leis!
19 Comments
  1. David Quaid October 16, 2013 at 2:40 pm - Reply

    I wonder if .catholic domains will be held high for inbound links?

    I presume that they’ll also introduce CC domains for parishes

    • Conn Ó Muíneacháin October 16, 2013 at 2:46 pm - Reply

      Such as ennis.ie.catholic?

      Actually, Msgr Tighe is quoted, saying: “the recognized structure of the church can be mirrored in the digital space”.

      So then that would be parish.diocese.catholic, e.g. ennis.killaloe.catholic

      • David Quaid October 16, 2013 at 2:53 pm - Reply

        We were wondering what kind of upsells there might be on the Vatican reseller site:

        1. Add a Papal Blesssing for €199 (Must for extra SEO Benefits)

        2. Add a Vatican-banned-media Spam Filter for just €2 per mailbox per month

        3. Add a Mass-Card-Builder app for just €19.99 that will send pre-blessed e-Mass Cards

  2. Michael Burke October 16, 2013 at 2:56 pm - Reply

    Will the Vatican be registering “isthepopea.catholic”?

    • David Quaid October 16, 2013 at 2:58 pm - Reply

      Love it

      • Conn Ó Muíneacháin October 16, 2013 at 3:01 pm - Reply

        You could probably just hardcode that page – couldn’t you?

        • Michael Burke October 16, 2013 at 3:10 pm - Reply

          Probably, but I was thinking more along the lines of isitchristmas.com, so the minute he stops being a Catholic it’d change automatically.

          • Conn Ó Muíneacháin October 16, 2013 at 3:21 pm

            Exactly why I’m saying you could probably get away with a static page, on the balance of probability :)

  3. Anton_S1 October 16, 2013 at 11:15 pm - Reply

    Could I get quotes for:

    nota.catholic
    usedtobea.catholic
    former.catholic
    howtoresignfrom.catholic
    heretical.catholic
    abusedbya.catholic

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1 min readCategories: GeneralTags: , , , , Last Updated: October 16, 2013

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